"..Found Thorin With his feet on the fender smoking a pipe. He was blowing the most enormous smoke-rings and wherever he told him to go it went up the chimney or behind the clock on the mantelpiece, Or under the table or round and round the ceiling but wherever it went it was not quick enough to escape Gandalf. Pop! He sent a smaller smoke ring from his short clay pipe straight through each one of Thorin's.

then Gandalf's smoke-ring would go green and come back to hover over the wizard's head. He had a cloud of them about him already, and in the dim light it made him look strange and sorcerous. Bilbo stood still and watched he loved smoke -rings -- and then he blushed to think how proud he had been yesterday morning of the smoke-rings he had sent up in the wind over The Hill....

INTERESTING?..Extended Edition..in 3D?..PrettyPleasePJ? you are our only hope...

Yes, there *is* indeed a smoke puffing scene rather early on in the movie. Except it was neither glowing nor green nor colorful, I don’t think (and, yes, I agree that perhaps the Extended Edition would bring us all that infamous greenish tint eventually)...

*But* it wasn’t made by Gandalf! The smoke ring, puffed by the Old Bilbo of "LOTR" we’re all familiar with and love (Sir Ian Holmes), grows and grows and grows, then blurs and blends and softly and gently brings the audience to the Young Bilbo (Martin Freeman), that we will know and *will* love, of the movie we’ve come to watch, "The Hobbit."

This little transition scene has got to be, to me, the most clever and totally creative couple of seconds (if that) of the movie! Kudos to PJ! I definitely wasn’t expecting that at all!

I’m not sure if your post was directed at me or not, but I’m taking liberty to answer that post as well: Yes, there’s another scene later on at night in Bag End when the Dwarves busily and heavy-handedly (try to) clean up after themselves following a sumptuous meal at the homeowner’s expense, while Gandalf is enjoying his pipe, watching the busy bees at work, playfully and in tune, and taking it all in, when all of a sudden a plate flies by and shatters the smoke ring he just puffs... Not a single piece of earthenware, not even a spoon, was dropped, however, during the whole house chores that the Dwarves, too, apparently have fun at while singing their hearts out. And after all that effort, the messy dishes end up in several big piles on the dining table—arranged and perhaps more organized, but still a huge pile of mess. Yet in the morning, when Bilbo wakes up to find out all the "guests" have quietly removed themselves, his Bag End is returned to its normal state, perhaps even better, since it now looks so much cleaner. So courteous and thoughtful, these Dwarves! (Wonder if Gandalf had anything to do with it.)

But the other creative transition scene was the one that registered in my mind... Very well done!